It has been about 16 years since we have experienced such dif­ficult economic times as currently befall us, and I think the end is not in sight. This recession ap­pears that it will have a far greater impact than the last one. The town’s legislative and executive branches will have to make intelligent, long-term decisions to deal with the challenges facing us - more on that later. It’s time to turn our attention away from bailouts, foreclo­sures, bankruptcies, hemor­rhaging 401Ks, and focus on Christmas and the spirit that flows from the season. The West Barnstable Civic Association along with the West Parish Me­morial Foundation present­ed the annual Christmas tree lighting on the Village Green and caroling at the West Parish Meeting House on Sunday evening. It was a nice event and well at­tended by many families in spite of the snowy weather. The singing was led by the Cape Cod Conservatory Girls A Cappella Choir, and a Christmas reading was followed by a gather­ing of family and friends at Jenkins Hall for refresh­ments. If you missed it this year, please join us next year - you will enjoy it.

The Sandy Neck Board met earlier this week and a few items were discussed that I’ll share. The town has been working for a cou­ple of years on permitting and design for a new bath house as well as expanding the parking area to recover the approximately 70 spaces lost during a major storm. A new facility is needed to replace the disgraceful bath house presently serving residents and guests. The town has spent well over $100,000 so far, plus count­less hours of staff and San­dy Neck Board time during the process. It now appears after much negotiating with the Mass. Dept. of Envi­ronmental Protection that residents and guests will not be getting a new bath house or expanded parking. It seems the Spade Foot Toad and primary dune have more rights than you, the users and rate payers do. The state’s decision is extremely frustrating to me, so if any of you have sug­gestions on how to proceed in a manner that is legal and the town can afford, please share your thoughts.

You will be interested to know that Sandy Neck enjoyed a very good year in 2008. Both revenue and vehicle trips (beach park­ing and off road vehicle - ORV users) were up over the last several years. There were 5,384 vehicles from Sandwich, 5,244 from Barnstable and 6,307 from other places using the Sandy Neck parking lot. Staff is now tracking ve­hicles turned away because of no available parking and there were 522 of those. There were also 3,145 ORV permits issued, accounting for a total of 19,659 vehicle trips.

My last few articles in the Patriot have touched on the fiscal challenges facing the federal, state and town budgets along with some suggestions. While politi­cians like to put a nice spin on things, I am a realist, having lived through several very challenging economic times. I don’t believe we have come close to the bot­tom in the real estate mar­ket, unemployment, credit card defaults, auto industry collapse, etc. I will continue to focus attention on the need for your town leaders to make tough, common sense fiscal decisions at every level of the town to help us weather this storm, no mat­ter how long it takes.

While the feds would like us all to start spending again to jump-start the economy, my sense is that we (citizens and the government) need to be fiscally conservative for some time. I don’t mean to be disloyal to the economic recovery efforts that the new administration will be tinker­ing with, but I suspect there will be an extended trial-and-error period that will keep a meaningful recovery in limbo.

Raising taxes and creating arbitrary regulations is not the answer. That policy will threaten a recovery because businesses will not invest in their operation or hire new workers. Take a ride past the Career Opportunity center at the west end of North Street and note all the vehicles there - it’s jammed with people looking for work. Government does not create wealth, but it can stifle it through onerous taxation and regulatory policies.

Since the town does not have unlimited discretionary income to support all the de­mands for our fixed revenue, the town manager and town council must be thoughtful but tough in creating next year’s budget. Government has a tendency to create programs and services during good economic times, only to discover that they can’t keep delivering on those pro­grams and services in tough economic times. All services and programs in town must be questioned for continua­tion.

There is nothing more important than courageous fiscal management right now, so I will continue to address the issues. The town and school administration need to focus on eliminat­ing programs and services that have minimal use/value. I urge the school commit­tee, administration and the unions to agree to a con­tract with no increase for any employees next year. Barnstable needs an across-the-board freeze in contracts covering all town employees, including the fire districts. We need to preserve more teaching jobs, not bigger pensions. I hope my council colleagues will not support a school budget that reflects an increase in employee com­pensation for FY 2010.

I still believe an indepen­dent group of residents with strong fiscal skills and com­mon sense should review the current school operation and all options available. They should be appointed by the town manager to develop a long-range “bailout” plan before any employment con­tracts are committed to, or buildings are closed. Long-range fiscal planning with clear-cut objectives is a must for the schools.

I also want to reiterate - the town cannot continue to ignore our capital assets by deferring maintenance of them as one of my col­leagues suggested. That just jacks the ultimate cost of repairs exponentially. The council should designate the maximum amount of CPA funds possible toward improving and preserving the town’s historic buildings. That commitment should continue for as long as neces­sary because there will never be enough surplus funds to deal with all our capital needs.

As we are about to say goodbye to 2008, I want to thank the West Barnstable Civic Association board of directors, and especially Kris Clark who has served tire­lessly for the last three years as the president. Kris and the board of directors have provided me and the village with invaluable assistance throughout the year, for which I am truly grateful.

I suspect many of you don’t know how active a board you have, but they do a great job all year - it is a la­bor of love for them, keeping West Barnstable the special place it is. Please give them a thank you when you next see them. And please join them at the WBCA annual meet­ing on Jan. 20 at 6:30 p.m. at the WB Community Build­ing. There will be several in­teresting and important items on the agenda to discuss and possibly some bylaw updates, so I hope to see you all there.

Remember, the town and village need residents to do some work and have some fun, so please join us by volunteering a little of your time - it is very rewarding. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

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and if you would like to be added to my e-mail notices, please send me your e-mail address and I’ll include you. Don’t forget to check these Web sites – www.town.barnstable.ma.us and www.west­barnstable.org – for more community news.